Pulwama fidayeen attack: Ten killed

Anantnag: It's just keep on going, a pre-dawn fidayeen attack on Pulwama District Police Lines (DPL) left at least ten people dead, and that too after over 10 hours of intense exchange of fire between militants and government forces yesterday. Talking about the dead, it include four men of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, four personnel of the paramilitary CRPF, and two militants. Talking with mediapersons, Director General of Police (DGP) SP Vaid said that a combing operation was on&hellip;

Anantnag: It’s just keep on going, a pre-dawn fidayeen attack on Pulwama District Police Lines (DPL) left at least ten people dead, and that too after over 10 hours of intense exchange of fire between militants and government forces yesterday.

Talking about the dead, it include four men of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, four personnel of the paramilitary CRPF, and two militants.

Talking with mediapersons, Director General of Police (DGP) SP Vaid said that a combing operation was on at the site of the encounter.

“Firing has stopped as of now. Two buildings have been searched and the third one is being combed thoroughly. We are expecting to retrieve body of the third militant soon,” Vaid said.

However, if sources are to be believed, firing was still going on, and the lone surviving militant was giving a tough fight to the government forces.

Indications are that the militants entered the DPL at about 3:45 AM Saturday morning using police uniforms as cover.

“They did not use the main gate. There is a smaller door at the family quarters’ end of the DPL, which they used to enter the premises,” a police source said.

The source further went on to add that the gate is normally manned by CRPF personnel, who came under a volley of bullets soon after they let the militants in mistaking them for policemen.

“The gate is used by policemen often to fetch water from a nearby water supply scheme. That is apparently what might have created confusion in the minds of the CRPF personnel,” the source said.

“Had that not been the case the fatalities might have been much higher,” the sources said.

By the time the militants took shelter, the entire security grid was put on alarm.
“Contingents of police, army and CRPF were rushed to the spot,” sources said.

The first priority, Vaid said, was to take out the people trapped in the family quarters safely.
“Around 28 to 29 people were rescued and taken to safety,” Vaid said.